Château Belair Monange, 1er Grand Cru Classé, St Emilion, 2022

Name: Château Belair Monange, 1er Grand Cru Classé, St Emilion
Brand: Château Belair Monange
Price: 956.74 GBP

Available Vintages

all 2015 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

justerini & brooks tasting note

Belair Monange, which incorporates the vineyards of Belair and Magdelaine, occupies an enviable position on the limestone Cote to the west of Chateau Ausone. We always taste this wine at the end of the JP Moueix tasting as it is so different from the style of the Pomerol range. Produced from 98% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Franc, the 2022 displays the class of this great limestone terroir. Initially quite a closed, with aeration aromas of ripe plums, dark chocolate, Asian spice, bergamot, cut flowers and tobacco emerge. Serious and grand scale, the palate is brooding and mineral with lots of fine detail. It's all quite muscled at the moment, but there's enormous potential her as evidence by the evocative tannins and wonderfully saline finish.

critic reviews

97/100Chris Kissack,The Wine Independent

This flagship Moueix wine is 99% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc, and it suggests wonderful density and purity combined on the nose, with blackcurrant, juniper, garden mint and tobacco. The palate is fresh and elegantly composed, with a sweet and finely polished core of dried berry fruits, with rose petals, peonies and rosemary, wrapped around a tightly strung frame of confident tannins, which give the wine a serious grip but which never seem to dominate. Beautifully composed, with such energy in the finish, this is surely the best Bélair-Monange yet – presumably those grandiose new cellars on the hilltop above St Emilion have something to do with that? The long finish, elegantly formed yet riven with ripe tannins, suggest it will go the distance as well.

DRINKING WINDOW 2030 - 2063

date of review 06/2025

100/100Jane Anson,Inside Bordeaux

Underlines just how exciting this estate has become in recent years. So much flavour, juice and texture, layers of pleasure, campfire, gunsmoke, steel, raspberry, umami texture with contrast between the creamy ripe fruit coupled with pumice and crushed stones, juicy lift, a ton of pleasure finessed and powerful, exceptional quality and a signal that Bélair-Monanage has really come into its own, Harvest September 8 to 20, Moueix family.

DRINKING WINDOW 2029 - 2044

date of review 03/2025

97/100Neal Martin,Vinous

The 2022 Bélair-Monange actually has a <em>soupçon</em> of Pomerol on the nose, perhaps from the deft touch of black truffle that combines beautifully with the hints of black fruit, blood orange and allspice. This is outstanding in terms of delineation. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins. It’s a tad more peppery than the Trotanoy, yet it shares the same sense of symmetry and length. Precise and detailed, this is a wonderful, life-affirming Belair-Monange that’s not a million miles away stylistically from Beauséjour. This is a Saint-Émilion that will age gracefully in bottle.

DRINKING WINDOW 2032 - 2070

date of review 02/2025

94-95/100William Kelley,Robert Parker Wine Advocate

Aromas of blackberries, cherry preserve, black tea and licorice introduce the 2022 Belair Monange, a full-bodied, deep and powerful wine with a layered, somewhat liqueured core of fruit, powdery tannins and a long, expansive and slightly heady finish. Perhaps because the vines are younger, this is the cuvee in the Mouiex portfolio that shows the ripeness of the vintage the most this year.

date of review 04/2023